Archive for the 'Dropkick Murphys' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Bagpipes for the fallen in Boston. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register. Click for more.

Dropkick Murphys have always taken pride in their hometown of Boston, a fact that has shown up in lyrics on virtually all of the group's albums over the years. But, as might have been expected given the marathon bombing and aftermath since the band's set last weekend, that allegiance took on new meaning during the Celtic punk band's fiery return to Coachella Saturday afternoon.

"A big thank you to everyone for showing such incredible support to the people in Boston," Ken Casey said halfway into the set, just before tearing into "Your Spirit's Alive," written for a friend who passed away five years ago. "It's very fitting this week," Casey added.

Taking the stage to a traditional Irish tune sung by Sinead O'Connor, the group launched with the fast and furious "For Boston," off 2001's Sing Loud, Sing Proud. From there, it was one blitzkrieg, bagpipe-enhanced tune after another from gravelly voiced frontman Al Barr & Co., in a changed-up set list that included "Broken Hymns," "The Boys Are Back" (during which the singer mixed it up with fans and a slam pit commenced) and the title track from latest release Rose Tattoo.

After Friday's Jello Biafra snub by Coachella fans - with only a couple hundred patrons sporting blank stares turning up for the evening performance in the Gobi tent - it was hard to gauge what the reaction would be for Saturday's faster-harder Dropkick Murphys and Descendents sets.

The 3:35 p.m. time slot on the main stage was perfect for Dropkick, though the pasty Irish-American punks were turning beet red in the direct sunlight as they delivered a spectacularly strong run with a good blend of old and new material.

Opening with "The Boys are Back" off its eighth studio album, "Signed and Sealed in Blood," which dropped in January, the group got the crowd stirring and forming small dance circles (the moshpit's wimpy cousin) on either side of the stage. By the time it hit with another new cut, "Prisoner's Song," there were at least three full-on moshpits filled with dancing fans, happily participating by singing along, raising their fists high into the air and smooshing their sweaty-glistening bodies into one another.

Coachella extras: We've been expecting the usual array of small-scale shows before, between and after the double-header festival in Indio. At last a slew of them have just been revealed via organizer Goldenvoice – more than two dozen dates, with intimate turns from Lou Reed, Vampire Weekend, Modest Mouse and La Roux topping the list.

Much to the delight of older fans who'd never dare brave the elements at Coachella, Reed has tacked on an April 17 performance at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, $45-$55. Also appearing there is Rodriguez, subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, April 16, $45-$65.

Don’t care for this year’s Coachella double-whammy or simply didn’t get tickets in time?

Then perhaps you should consider traveling north for Memorial Day weekend.

Late last night the lineup was revealed for the next Sasquatch! music festival, May 24-27 at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Wash. Seeing as there are only so many acts to go ’round at these multiday events, the number of repeats who appear a month earlier in Indio is high, from top-tier names like the Postal Service, Sigur Rós, Vampire Weekend, Tame Impala, the Lumineers and the XX to those that fall a few lines lower, like Alt-J, Japandroids, Father John Misty, DIIV, Divine Fits and Dropkick Murphys.

But then there are a few exclusives, like headliner Mumford & Sons in what should be their first stateside festival appearance of the year, and at a most picturesque locale. Also playing there but not here are Arctic Monkeys, Empire of the Sun, Andrew Bird, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Primus, Cake, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Devendra Banhart, Primus, Imagine Dragons, Dirty Projectors and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

• Dropkick Murphys, Signed and Sealed in Blood (Born & Bred) – The unavoidable deterrent about these ever-fiery Celtic rockers from Boston is their interchangeability. If you’ve heard at least two more albums since creative breakthrough Blackout a decade ago, then you’ve pretty much heard ’em all, including 2011’s attempt at a concept album, Going Out in Style, which was at least as solid as Flogging Molly’s narratives yet can be matched by one great song here – say "Rose Tattoo," a more naked cry of undying loyalty than you’ll find from these carousing anthem-makers.

What sets this one apart is its concision without compromise. They’ve wisely ditched any pretense toward heightened significance, re-stoking their bro-hymn flames instead, while producing the thoughtfulness and variety that keeps peeking out the older they get. Punk energy abounds even in the softer waltzing moments (including a yuletide keeper, "The Season’s Upon Us") yet they come across just as believably when they detour toward classic country ("Jimmy Collins’ Wake"), fuzzed-up Social Distortion chant-rock ("Don’t Tear Us Apart") or a hint of glammy ’70s boogie ("Out of Our Heads"). They take further baby steps forward and wind up winning: same spirit, no sapping of strength, yet increasing willingness to put down the beer and bagpipes and do something different.

Grade: B+

• Girls: Volume 1 (Fueled by Ramen) – Lena Dunham’s compulsively watchable adults-0nly glimpse at train-wreck twentysomethings caught in one awkward position after another gratefully gets the train-wreck soundtrack it deserves. It’s a given that the more you know the show, the more the collection works as a memory keeper, yet all of it is agreeably hip regardless. When you let the deluxe edition wash by for the length of two episodes, a happy-edgy flow carries you along so smoothly even the no-names almost rise to the level of gems you should already have (Robyn’s glorious lead-off kiss-off, a ray of partly-cloudy sunshine from Belle and Sebastian strong enough to leave a light burn).

The standouts you don’t have are unusually plentiful: a sweet reconstruction of the Stones’ "Fool to Cry" from Tegan and Sara, sharp slices of fun. and Grouplove similar to what made them popular yet satisfying anyway. Nice entrée into the burgeoning songbooks of Fleet Foxes and Harper Simon it might be, but most of what’s exceptional here can be had elsewhere, the must-haves don’t outnumber the merely interesting introductions, and though I welcome even a fleeting sexy grime from Santigold, after I’d blasted the playlist twice I couldn’t recall a lick of it. And still I’d buy the whole thing just to have Michael Penn’s closer. Grade: B

November 13th, 2012, 10:50 am by ROBERT KINSLER, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Al Barr of Boston's Dropkick Murphys riles up the crowd. Photo: Kelly A. Swift, for the Register. Click for more.

Few bands roar with the ferociousness of Dropkick Murphys. For just under 90 minutes Monday night, the Boston band rocked the Observatory with an intense power that fueled action in the pit and produced plenty of obvious delight from those packed into every corner of the Santa Ana venue, cheering and pumping their fists and moving with the music.

It almost goes without saying that Dropkick would play many of its signature Celtic punk tunes with abandon – and throwing in a reworked, amped-up cover of the Irish classic “The Irish Rover” was loads of fun as well.

But with a new album, Signed and Sealed in Blood, due in January, the group also rolled out a number of new songs, showcasing the genre-busting outfit's still-burgeoning ambition.

They opened with the aptly titled “The Boys Are Back,” an undeniably catchy song that immediately had the crowd surging along to the mighty rhythm. Even more impressive was a performance later in the set of “Don't Tear Us Apart,” a winner that, with a haunting melody replaced by rousing gang vocals on the chorus, put the spotlight on the band's often overlooked songwriting gifts.

Another four years, another Alanis album arrives. That's how long it took between 2004's So-Called Chaos and its follow-up, Flavors of Entanglement, and that's how long it has taken for her next one to emerge.

Havoc and Bright Lights, Ms. Morissette's fifth set of new material since her breakthrough Jagged Little Pill, arrives next week, on Aug. 22, followed by a tour that kicks off days later in New Jersey. The Canadian singer-songwriter just announced additional stops, including her return to Southern California, Sept. 26 at the Fox Theater in Pomona.

Tickets, $37.50-$47.50, go on sale Friday, Aug. 17, at 10 a.m. Also catch her Sept. 24 at Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay, $60, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

It was only a little more than two months ago that rap mega-star Lil Wayne was last in O.C., to headline Honda Center. But he already has plans for an encore visit, this time at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine on Aug. 26.

As in Anaheim, big man Rick Ross will serve as second in command, but the rest of Weezy's openers have changed -- instead of Nicki Minaj and Travis Barker, the Irvine stop will get Southern R&B star Keri Hilson, Asian American outfit Far East Movement, and tenacious Lloyd, whose fourth album, King of Hearts, arrived this week.

Tickets, $23.75-$93.75, go on sale Saturday, July 9, at 10 a.m., with a pre-sale running from Thursday at 10 a.m. until Friday at 10 p.m. (Catch Lil Wayne and his entourage a day ahead, on Aug. 25, at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, $29.75-$89.75.)

July 3rd, 2011, 12:48 pm by ROBERT KINSLER, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It was a hot, hot Hootenanny this year: With the temperature seemingly positioned around the 100 mark for most of the afternoon, the annual festival welcomed a strong lineup of rockabilly, psychobilly, alt-country, Americana and roots-rock artists to Irvine on Saturday.

Now in its 17th year, the Oak Canyon Ranch bash still proved to have a few new cards to play over the course of eight full hours of music. Indeed, headliner Dropkick Murphys made their first-ever appearance at the event, the hard-rocking troupe bringing its blend of traditional Celtic folk, punk and East Coast rock 'n' roll to a gathering best known for classic hot rods, tattoos aplenty and vintage '50s clothing.

Compared to Chuck Berry's dull stint here last year, Dropkick Murphys' late-afternoon set was the perfect celebration as the canyon finally began to cool. The long-running band from Quincy, Mass., charged through more than a dozen originals and threw in some crowd-pleasing covers to boot.

The group's new album Going Out in Style provided some of its best original material: blue-collar workers rights were the focus of the propulsive folk-rocker "Take 'Em Down"; the band offered up an emotive version of "Cruel." Other highlights included the energetic "Peg o' My Heart" and the bagpipes-anchored title track, with its punk attack and infectious chorus.

Well-placed covers included a super-fast version of the traditional tune "The Irish Rover" and, later in the set, a rowdy take on AC/DC's "T.N.T." For that one, lead singer Al Barr (above) conjured Bon Scott as the Hootenanny faithful were suddenly transformed into a mass of fist-pumping headbangers.

June 6th, 2011, 10:00 pm by KELLI SKYE FADROSKI, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It just doesn't feel like summer in Orange County without the annual Hootenanny taking over Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine every Fourth of July weekend. And between Sasquatch and Weenie Roast and our Bonnaroo coverage coming later this week -- not to mention future posts on U2, Alison Krauss, the Flaming Lips, Powerhouse, Britney and lots more -- well, we're antsy for a chill afternoon of wannabe pin-up babes and fired-up roots-rock.

Now in its 17th year, the festival continues to bring together the biggest names in rockabilly and psychobilly, Americana and country, punk and now Celtic rock, as represented by this year's headliner, Dropkick Murphys, making their Hootenanny debut. Plenty of the event's mainstays -- including Reverend Horton Heat, Big Sandy, 3 Bad Jacks and Royal Crown Revue -- will also take the stage July 2.

There may not be too many living legends on hand this time, but as you'll notice in the slide show, Hootenanny has hosted more than a few over the years, from Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry (for better and worse) and Little Richard. Other past highlights have come from next-generation heroes like the late Joe Strummer, Chris Isaak, X, the Blasters, the Cramps, Stray Cats and Social Distortion. (Those last two co-headlined when the festival in 2003, when it was a two-day bash on the Cal State Fullerton campus. Early last decade it was also held at the Hidden Valley Ranch area within Wild Rivers, adjacent to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.)

Of course, for many Hootenanny regulars, this is just a big party day in a lifestyle that involves restored classic cars, vintage bikes, '50s fashions and ice-cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. They aren't just dressing the part for the shindig, they live it every day.